Features
International Yoga day in Madhya Pradesh 2018
June 21, 2018
International Yoga Day was celebrated in the four villages of Juna Kathiwada, Muljipura, Haveli Kheda and Golamba in Madhya Pradesh, where Amrita SeRVe is currently working. Village coordinator Anju Singh had taken up the overall responsibility of organizing the event. The sports ground at Haveli Kheda was the venue for the event, which was decided after considering the accessibility for all the participants.
Many Amrita staff came together to make the arrangements to ensure the day would be a success. AMMACHI Labs tailoring centre staff Jyothi ben, Deepesh and Ramila were a tremendous help in the venue preparations. The travelling team from Amritapuri headquarters were present and the Amrita University internship team from Bangalore campus including two staff and 10 students also participated.
With the guidance of Anuradha from Amrita CREATE, the tuition teachers Sanjay, Ramesh and Kalu were assigned the duty of gathering all the children and taking them to the venue. Everyone from the different villages arrived between 7 and 8 am: 28 children from Muljipura, 10 from Juna Kathiwada, 30 from Golamba, and around 30 from Haveli Kheda.
Precisely at 8 am, Amrita staff Nidhi along with the principal of Kattiwada primary school Vijay Kulkarni lighted the lamp. He explained the vision of celebrating this day and read Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message on yoga.
Highlight of the day proceeded with the zonal coordinator Sonam leading the group through the yoga sequence. Beginning with a few of sitting asanas, followed by Surya Namaskar for five rounds, the sequence continued with a couple of standing asanas, and ended with relaxing postures. Sonam also guided a group meditation at the end.
“I enjoyed very much conducting the sequence for this large group. I am very glad that staff from all departments came together and participated in practicing yoga enthusiastically. They helped us in every way possible,” Sonam tells happily.
After the yoga practice, the tuition teacher Sanjay sang one of Amma’s bhajans. Amma’s message of yoga day was addressed, and the story of Lord Shiva and Parvati was narrated by Soumya, an Amrita SeRVe sevite.
Before the yoga celebration came to a close and everyone left, the children were given orange juice and bananas as prasad and group photos were clicked. When asking whether they will practice yoga daily, the children promised with a nod and utter cuteness in their local accent: “Ho!” which means ‘yes’.